Apartment Residents Take Gripes To Eustis Commission

July 20, 1986|By Jim Runnels of The Sentinel Staff

EUSTIS — Several angry residents of Foxwood Apartments appeared before city commissioners Thursday night to complain about conditions at the controversial complex, but the owner/manager of the property said Friday the residents do not have valid complaints.

''I think what you are seeing here is basically a personal problem,'' said Pam Borton, president of the firm that manages Foxwood and seven other multifamily properties in Lake County. Borton is also one of the members of a limited partnership that owns the Foxwood complex.

''We terminated the resident managers of the complex, and what I think you are seeing is a lot of people stirred up by disgruntled employees,'' Borton said.

The residents complained to the city commission about items ranging from uncut grass to locked laundry rooms to the lack of a live-in manager.

There also were complaints about shoddy workmanship in the buildings and even one complaint that Lake County school buses refuse to stop at the complex.

''The contract we sign with residents does not guarantee a live-in manager or laundry facilities,'' Borton said. ''We do both as a courtesy and we lease the coin-operated machines from a vendor.

''The contract we have with the vendor requires that the machines be locked up at night, so we have to close the laundry at night.''

Complaints about uncut grass may have been valid, Borton said, because she did not realize the rainy season was causing the grass to grow so quickly. She said the grass will be cut at least every seven days during the wet season.

Eustis code enforcement officer Mary Ziegengeist said Friday that she received three telephone calls from residents complaining about the grass, and said Borton visited her office the next day to explain that she would take care of the problem.

Ziegengeist said she will inspect the apartments to see whether the residents' complaints are valid.

Two residents who live in the complex said Friday that the complaints are mostly minor and the main trouble at the complex is that residents feel sorry for the fired managers who still live in the complex.